The State of the #Bond_age_ Book

As many of you know, I’ve been working to formally publish the collected works of #Bond_age_. I’ve been tinkering with the existing essays and writing some connective tissue with the intent of publication. It’s not been without its share of frustration (as with any endeavor publish). Many of you have aided me along the way. As I’ve been submitting my queries and pitches over the last four months, I’ve not only been met with deafening silence from my targeted publishers, but I’ve also come to terms with the tragic flaw of the manuscript as constructed. It’s too complicated. It’s too much *stuff* packed into one pitch. Too many related ideas and #Bond_age_ goodness and not enough focus… at least for impartial third-party eyes. I know it makes sense. Maybe you know it makes sense. But Joe Curmudgeon over there reading submission packets doesn’t give it a second glance. Bond essays. Experiential anecdotes. Thoughts on how social media has democratized film criticism. Live tweet tweets? And though I joke, he’d be absolutely right. It’s a mess of ideas. So I’m recalibrating. I’m still working on my other manuscript, come what may.

This #Bond_age_ book was always about how the project came together and built momentum. It was about #Bond_age_ fans as a community of like-minded viewers from all over this planet. Let’s simplify. Let’s take the #Bond_age_ Book back to the essentials. Let’s compile the #Bond_age_ essays, the My Favorite #Bond_age_ Essays and selections from our original live tweets. It will be our book. We did all this. We’ll publish the book ourselves too. The venue for publication will be a secondary concern for now. But if you have ideas, please let me know. I’ll get into this research a little further down the road. Having our contributions to James Bond on this website is lovely, but these are just bits and bytes. Websites can disappear in the blink of an eye (as I found out not so very long ago). Let’s put this on paper and put it on the shelf next our ragged Ian Fleming Signet paperbacks.

We need to go through all the essays and polish. I’m looking for a few sets of eyes to scrutinize. Who’s with me? I promise this will be less Bond leading screaming ninjas to slaughter. Less human-shielding, I promise.

Let’s start with Step One.

I need copyeditors. I need eyes to help me go over all the essays, especially the My Favorite #Bond_age_ essays. I’m hoping to find three volunteers. We can coordinate over email and set up a project Dropbox to share workflow. If you’re interested in joining the Book Team, send me a message on Twitter (@007hertzrumble, in case you forgot) or email me at jdpatrick913 at gmail.com.

We’ll get to Step Two (Design) after I have a willing (or not-so-willing if necessary) team of copyeditors in place.